Item A: Comprehensive Plan for Bringing Properties into City

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especially in Santa Clara; increased access to Willamette River; protection for agricultural land; and so on. Envision Eugene In 2010, the City of Eugene began a community visioning process called Envision Eugene. The two primary goals of Envision Eugene are to: 1) determine how Eugene will accommodate the next 20 years of growth in the community, and 2) create a future that is livable, sustainable, beautiful and prosperous. In June 2012, the City Council directed staff to move forward with the formal adoption package necessary to implement Envision Eugene and a new Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). Since that time, staff has been making progress on the various components necessary to formally adopt a new UGB. Components will be brought forward to the council as they are ready, with local UGB adoption anticipated in 2014. An important action identified in Envision Eugene, that will occur after the UGB adoption process is complete, is the development of an Area Plan for the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhoods. This Area Plan will address impacts of increasing urbanization, will build on and implement the previous work done in the neighborhoods, and will coordinate with work being done on service provision and special district issues. Annexation as a tool to comprehensive and equitable service provision In December 2007, the City Council adopted an ordinance establishing the procedures for annexation requests and amending Chapter 9 of the Eugene Code to include the procedures. The City Council last reviewed River Road/Santa Clara annexation strategy at a council work session on January 24, 2007. At that time, the council passed a motion which halted the practice of adding right-of-way to annexation requests in the River Road/Santa Clara area where such additions would create islands. The Metro Plan contains numerous policies which establish the long-standing direction for how annexation should occur in Eugene. These policies recognize that over time, land within the urban growth boundary (UGB) shall be annexed to the city. State law provides several means for how annexation can occur, including such options as City-initiated annexations. However, the Metro Plan provides more specific direction which relies solely on property owners to initiate annexation. This typically occurs when property owners pursue new development on their land (new residence, subdivision of land, etc.). The City’s land use code calls for properties to be annexed as properties further urbanize. While this approach has enabled incremental annexation to occur, more recent changes in state law have made this approach more challenging. Since 2008, all annexation requests must be contiguous to the city limits. Given the patchwork pattern of annexations, especially in the River Road/Santa Clara area, there are many properties that are not contiguous to any city limits, making them currently ineligible for annexation. As a result, many properties are unable to pursue new development until adjacent properties annex. S:\CMO\2013 Council Agendas\M130508\S130508A.doc